When you want to give a gift, I suggest a case of wine.



Martin Keck enjoying his gift

 When you want to give a gift with more than the usual thought behind it, for such occasions as Valentine’s Day, birthdays, anniversaries, I suggest a case of wine.

My wine geek friend PJ has a formula to help choose a nice case: “three French, three Italian, three California, three everywhere else. Of those, I suggest eight red bottles, four whites. Include some Bordeaux and some Rhone varietals, a Chianti and a Sparkling. Throw in a California Chardonnay or Cabernet.”

I used this formula as a guide for my son’s Christmas gift. He already had an Italian Chianti and Australian Riesling, so I bought 10 bottles. My tab was $160. This almost-case was a great gift, and affordable. My list is below.

Two from Italy, both reds

Barbera del Monferrato 2009, a biodynamic wine from Cascina Zerbetta, Italy. This is a red wine, 14 percent alcohol, with low sulfite levels, from a small grower in Italy’s Piedmont region. It’s a rich full-bodied wine with some tartness and earthiness, with nice tannins on the finish. A second Italian red was the Borgonero 2005, Borgo Scopeto, Toscana from Castelnuovo Berardenga A dry red wine at 13.5 percent alcohol

New Zealand, white

The 2011 Field of Stones Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough. This also is a Wall Street Journal Wine Club selection. Intense flavors of lemon, thyme and guava with crisp acidity and a lingering minerality. 12.5 percent alcohol.

Four from France: Two Reds, A White, and  A Sparkling White, 

For the first red, the Bordeaux Superieur 2008, Chateau de Bonhoste, a Grand Vin de Bordeaux from Famille Fournier. This red wine, 12.5 percent alcohol, is a blend of 70 percent Merlot, 20 percent Cabernet Sauvignon and 10 percent Cabernet Franc. Garnet-red in color, a baked-fruit bouquet, full body, soft and well balanced, and a nice fruity finish. The second red was the Cotes du Rhone Villages 2007, Laudun, Chateau Courac. 14 percent alcohol.

For the sparkling, the Brut Champagne, Nicolas Feuillatte of Chouilly, France. 12 percent alcohol.

The second white with the Chablis Millesime 2009, Simonnet Febvre of Grand Vin de Bourgogne. 12.5 percent alcohol.

Red from Argentina

I chose the 2009 Malbec, Viña Amalia, Reserve Single Vineyard, Valle de Uco, Mendoza . Fine red fruit aroma, with a fresh taste and well-balanced medium tannins. Flavor of plums and vanilla. 14 percent alcohol.

South Africa, a white

My pick was the Warwick 2010 Professor Black Sauvignon Blanc, from Stellenbosch. Warwick cellar lies on the celebrated slopes of the Simonsberg Mountains in Stellenbosch. Pear and peach aromas, and a pleasant minerality. 13 percent alcohol.

A California white

The 2009 Tessa Chardonnay from Sarapo Family Wines, Sonoma County rounded out the selections. 14.5 percent alcohol

Give your local wine shop your budget, PJ’s generic shopping list, and they should be able to approximate the selection and the cost.

What to Buy a Winemaker as a Gift

As I look at my receipt from The Wine Club shop in San Francisco, I could have regrets for tagging along with my friend who is a supplier to the wine industry while he bought gifts for his winemaker clients. But no. It was highly educational.

Think of the challenge: you need to buy a gift for a winemaker, and it should be wine. But the truth is that winemakers often develop a jaded palate from drinking their own wines (or wines from other wineries nearby – part of the research, you know). So this is an opportunity to think through ways that you can introduce a winemaker to something special and unique.

We headed to The Wine Club, located on Harrison Street in San Francisco. It’s long had a reputation for great selection and fair prices. I ran into one of my fellow wine reviewers there, so that’s some indication of its quality. Once inside this almost-warehouse, the champagne section was the first stop.

As most of you who have shopped for champagne recently – the real stuff, from the Champagne district of France – a healthy credit line is a good thing to bring along. But in fact, there are many good champagnes from France that will not require a second mortgage and that’s good since no one can get one of those these days!

A Billecart-Salmon Brut Rosé landed in the shopping card. $65. This is a beautiful rosé, perfect in color and possibly one of the best values for Brut Rosé. The maison has a reputation for making a steady wine that will not disappoint. Wineaccess.com calls it “delicate, impeccably balanced” and notes that “for many Champagne lovers, especially in the US, this is the house for rosé.” For those of you who are impacted by the point system: Robert Parker's Wine Advocate: 90 points, Wine Spectator: 90 points

Hailing from around the corner, but a tad less expensive at $42, the Guy Charlemagne Reserve Brut Blanc de Blancs shows characteristics of pears, caramel, with some apple and vanilla notes.

A sleeper of a value at $14 is the South African version, called Methode Cap Classique, a Chardonnay and Pinot Noir Brut from Graham Beck. I love South African wines. More on that later.

The cha-ching was already up there, so a quick trip to the Bordeaux section. Into the cart went a Sociando-Mallet 2005, a blend of 55% cabernet, 40% merlot and 5% cab franc. “A great bottle… it’s heaven”, said David Goodwin, a manager at Wine Club. $55.

We shashayed through the sauternes. Splits are really the way to go on these, otherwise a full bottle is a lot of sweetness. The Chateau La Tour Blanche 2003, with gentle honey and quince aroma, is $35 the half bottle.

Next to the Burgundy section. A 2007 Latour-Girard Mersault-Charmes at $60 was lovingly placed into the cart. This lovely wine received a 91-93 score by “Burghound”, the nom de plume of Allen Meadows who has become the definitive reviewer of Burgundies in recent years. A finance executive for 21 years, he retired to focus on his passion for burgundies. Follow him at http://www.burghound.com/

To finish the shopping, we spent a half hour at the shop’s honor-code tasting bar. They supply glasses with a red line to indicate a fair tasting pour, and you pour from the 20 or so open bottles and note what you tasted. You pay 10% of the bottle price per pour. Great concept!

If you don’t have the time now to go into San Francisco, of course they have an internet presence: http://www.thewineclub.com/. Happy wine shopping, wherever you go! Happy New Year too!

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© 2011 Barbara Keck

For more information on dining and the wide range of activities around Lake Tahoe, see the online version of The Tahoe Weekly. This article appeared in my column "It's Grape" in January 2011.

Book in Process: " Mountain Wineries of the Sierra and Its Foothills".

New wine-associated products make great hostess gifts

The Rose’ drinking season is upon us, and with it, the inevitable spills on white and pastel colored clothes. You know I am a huge fan of Wine Away, and now, Wine Away comes in a handy purse size Wine Away is an amazing red wine stain remover formulated to most red wine stains from carpet and fabric – even some older stains. Wine Away is made from fruit and vegetable extracts, has a fresh citrus scent, and does not contain bleach or phosphates. The new purse size is a handy, attractive package resembling a lighter – open the top, then spray. $6.00 at Sur La Table, http://www.surlatable.com/

Going to a lot of wine tastings over the summer? It is high season for that. At the end of a challenging event, no need to walk away with purplish-colored teeth. Wine Wipes are a quick and easy way to remove red wine stains from your teeth and mouth. They use a proprietary blend of natural ingredients which not only clean red wine off teeth but also neutralize the palate. The small cloth has an orange blossom flavor that does not interfere with the wine tasting experience, and no water or rinsing is necessary after using them. They work, trust me. Available at http://www.winewipes.com/

It’s not uncommon to open a number of bottles of wine during the course of cocktail hour and dinner and dessert. Now there is no need to throw out the glass or two left in the bottle, since you can keep it fresh for a few more days with the use of a good wine topper reclosure cap. I like the ones made by Beltappo; they are thermoplastic and use materials that are FDA food grade approved and food contact acceptable. The toppers are unbreakable, reusable, dishwasher safe and recyclable. They come in packages of 6 colored “T-tops” and fit all major wine and spirits bottles. If you can’t find them locally, call the company at 206 780 0607 or go to the website at http://www.beltappo.com/

To get the last drop out of every wonderful bottle of wine, the Wine Shield is the answer. It’s a disc that is inserted into an open bottle of wine, and it extends the life of wine for up to 5 days by shielding it against oxidation. This shield (disc) is constructed of approved food contact plastic, and will fit 9 out of 10 wine bottle sizes. One it is inserted into the neck of the bottle and falls onto the surface of the wine, it create an air barrier. You can buy it online at http://winehardware.com/; a pack of 6 is $5.99 or 50 for $29.99.

If your wine drinking friends have more than 12 bottles on hand, sometimes it is difficult to keep track of what’s in the wine rack or boxes hither and yon. I personally use the disposable Wine Bottle Tags from Epic Products. These tags go over the neck of the bottle, and you can write the essential information you need: winery, year, varietal and maybe price. Buy them at many wine stores, about $5-6 for a pack of 50 (p.s. you can write on the opposite side too, so essentially you are covered for 100 bottles….) or order from Epic Products at http://www.epicstyle.com/. There are also reusable tags where you wipe off the ink, and those are also available in a gift set includes 20 plastic tags and an erasable pen, $6.95 on the Epic website.

Taking a bottle of chilled white wine to your hostess? Take it in an insulated single bottle carrier. It has a snap flap, carrying handle and pocketed waiters corkscrew. $18.95, from Epic Products.

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© 2010 Barbara Keck

For more information on dining and the wide range of activities around Lake Tahoe, see the online version of The Tahoe Weekly. This article appeared in my column "It's Grape" in June 2010.

Watch for my forthcoming book: "Wineries of the Sierra and Its Foothills". Publication date early Summer 2011, Wine Appreciation Guild Publishing.